General Wittich's orders were to remain at Chartres for the present, while the 6th Cavalry Division was to occupy Maintenon, and so cover the investing army to the west. Not less fervid was the rush to arms in the north, in Picardy and Normandy. The Saxon Cavalry Division, supported by detachments of the Army of the Meuse, had in the early part of October driven the franctireurs and Gardes-Mobiles beyond the Oise and the Epte on Amiens, taking some hundreds of prisoners. But fresh swarms were constantly coming on, and had to be attacked at Breteuil, Montdidier, and Etrepagny, so that no less than eleven battalions, twenty-four squadrons, and four batteries, were by degrees employed in this direction for the protection of the besieging force. But by the end of the month the French forces were so systematically organized and in so great strength, that for the time the Germans had to confine themselves to holding on the defensive the line of the Epte. To the south-east also, in the forest-land of Fontainebleau, hostilities were prosecuted by the volunteers, particularly against requisition-parties of cavalry; and from Nangis obstruction was threatened to the transport of the siege-guns. A small force of Wuertemberg troops seized Montereau, which, though barricaded, was not defended; the inhabitants gave up their arms, and the detachment marched on Nogent. This town was held by a large body of Gardes-Mobiles. After breaching the walls of the churchyard, the Wuertembergers, in the face of a hot fire, made their way into the place. The French still offered a stout resistance in its interior, but finally retired on Troyes, leaving 600 dead and wounded. The small flying column rejoined its Division, having traversed over 126 miles in six days. SORTIE AGAINST MALMAISON. (October 21st.) The French capital had now been invested for more than four weeks, and it seemed not impossible, because of the long continuance of inactivity, that it might be brought to surrender by famine. All the sorties hitherto attempted had only had for their object to drive the enemy from the closest vicinity; a new effort was to aim at greater results. The project was to cross the Seine below Paris at Bezons and Carrieres, and to make a simultaneous attack on the positions of the IVth Prussian Corps on the heights of Argenteuil from the south, and from St.-Denis from the east. A march on Rouen by Pontoise was to follow, into a district not yet altogether exhausted of resources. The Army of the Loire was also to proceed thither by railway by way of Le Mans, and so there would be massed in that region an army of 250,000 men.